The New Underland Chronicles: The Cutters' War
by TolerantCube
Summary: Crynn never fit in with the rest of the Regalians ever since the start of the war, but will a new prophecy change his life, as well as every other Underlander's lives, forever?
1. Chapter 1

**The New Underland**

**Cronicles**

**Book One**

Chapter 1

Crynn glanced up at Rho as she trained in the air on her bond Atlas' back.

He couldn't help but watch as the dark blue flyer flipped over, and Rho sliced a blood ball in half, upside down, in a seemingly impossible maneuver. They were both very good.

He had not heard his next command as he was watching the two bonds somersault through the air, but he definitely heard what came next.

"What do you think you're doing, Crynn?!" A disgruntled Mareth shouted in Crynn's ear. Mareth, despite his prosthetic leg, was still as intimidating and authoritative as ever.

"I-I am sorry, sir. I got distracted." Mareth watched him for a couple seconds. "Get on with your training, Crynn. I don't want you missing out on anything important because of a little 'distraction'.

"Yes sir", Crynn got out. Mareth clearly knew what the 'distraction' was, which embarrassed Crynn, but he knew Mareth was not the kind of person to go around and tell people, least of all his own students.

He looked across the field to see his friends locked in a battle with each other. Wells was getting better and better with his sword in his left hand since he had his right arm ripped off by a gnawer in their siege of Regalia during the great battle against the Bane and his army eight years ago.

Wells' sparring partner Marrow, coincidentally a gnawer herself, was holding her own against him, but Wells was clearly more skilled in combat even with only his left arm.

Lapblood gave Marrow tips as she passed, helping the gnawers with their training as Mareth trained the human trainees. Crynn realized he had just gotten distracted again, so he turned back to greet his sparring partner, who just happened to be his bond.

Crynn looked down at the face of the giant stinger beside him. He was at least twelve feet long, and that didn't even count when his tail and pincers were extended.

"You ready for a fight?" Crynn asked the arachnid.

"I have been waiting," Acrab said back to him, with what might have been a slightly impatient tone. It was hard to tell with his English, as he had only just learned the language little more than a year ago. They were able to communicate with each other only because of Hazard, who had broken down language barriers with every species in the Underland. He could speak every language, from spinner to digger.

"Yes, sorry. I really must pay more attention. It will not happen again."

Crynn held his sword out in front of him with both hands in a defensive position, and Acrab did the same with one of his massive, heart-shaped claws.

Crynn could sense Mareth and Lapblood watching him as he and Acrab circled one another, so he decided to take the first shot. He swung at the stinger, and his blow was easily blocked by one claw.

Acrab used the other claw to smack Crynn ten feet onto his back, and then rushed in to finish him off. Crynn rolled over at the last second, out of Acrab's reach, and hopped to his feet. He ran around the back of his bond, lunging to touch the fleshy underbelly of the stinger with his sword, but Acrab was one step ahead of him. Crynn forgot that with the two big median eyes in the middle of his head, Acrab could see directly behind him. He swung his tail around and knocked Crynn's legs right out from under him, sending his sword clattering.

Acrab quickly turned around, and pinned the sword to the ground with one of his forelegs.

"Come and retrieve your weapon, Crynn!" He taunted.

Crynn contemplated his next move, and went for it. He sprinted forward, dodged the first claw, and grabbed onto the second, using it to swing himself under the arachnid.

He grabbed the hilt of the sword and was just about to yank it out form under the leg when Acrab did something he hadn't thought of: he just collapsed on top of Crynn, completely pinning him down. Then he quickly reached under, grabbing Crynn by one leg. He dragged him out, held him upside down in the air, and jabbed him right in the stomach with his poison stinger.

"You win," Crynn said to the scorpion, who lowered his leather muzzle-covered stinger, and Crynn, down to the ground.

"As you knew I would," Acrab boasted. "Hey! I got close!" Crynn retaliated. "If we had been practicing with both swords _and_ daggers, I would have defeated you when I slid under you."

"True, that is. You got close," Acrab said. "But I still beat you! Again!" He did a little celebration dance, waving his big red claws in the air, and making sure that everyone around him knew that he beat Crynn.

"Acrab! Pay attention!" Mareth came walking over, snapping Acrab out of his dance. "When you are in a battle, you do not gloat or celebrate your victories, for you never know when you are truly safe. You can, and most likely will, be caught off guard."

At this, Mareth ran at Acrab, jumped off his left pedipalp and onto his back, and grabbed the end of his tail in one hand while simultaneously touching the tip of his sword to the the hard-to-reach weak spot just behind his armored cephalothorax. His missing leg didn't seem to hinder him at all.

"Which is definitely not what you want to happen," Mareth finished.

Crynn was so impressed by the performance Mareth conducted that he did not heed his advice. He was knocked to the ground from behind and pinned.

"That information doesn't only pertain to stingers, by the way," Lapblood said from on top of Crynn. She got off of him, and held out a paw to help him up.

"Thanks," Crynn said as he took it and pulled himself to his feet.

"Now," Mareth called out to everyone training, "I think we are done for this day. You all did very well."

Crynn turned to Acrab. "Let us go meet with the others." Acrab turned to walk with him.

After combat training, every creature in the fifteen to twenty-year-old range gathered in their own groups to converse before carrying on with their day. Crynn and Acrab gathered to the side to meet with Marrow and Wells. Wells' bond, Hestia, a pretty light orange flyer with bright red streaks down her back and sides, glided down from training on her own in the air.

"So, by what I could see, you two had a pretty even fight there... up until the end," Marrow said as he poked Crynn in the shoulder with the end of his tail.

"Honestly though, he got very close this time," Wells pointed out.

"Yes he did," Acrab said. "By our next battle, I am sure he just might defeat me."

Acrab never was one to make fun of Crynn for long. They were always as kind and honest to each other as an eighteen year old human and a three and a half year old stinger could be. Stingers aged fast, and lived to be about fifty to fifty five years old. However, the average Underlander life span was about fifty, so they were pretty even.

Humans didn't last long in the Underland, despite the still-running alliance with the gnawers. Because they had been at constant war.

Crynn had lost both his parents in a battle against the cutters three years ago. They were both torn apart right in front of him.

He was saved at the last second by a black bat with white stripes, and as they flew away, he watched his home, the Fount, be taken over completely.


	2. Chapter 2

Seven years ago, Gregor the Overlander had come back down to Regalia after a year of being away from the Underland. He brought his entire family down, after his grandmother had died.

He and Queen Luxa had gotten married only last month. They both ruled Regalia together on their own after Vikus died, but the Queen made most of the decisions. Gregor didn't really like being called "King Gregor", either. Crynn had only spoken with them once, in the council's company. They were there for he and Acrab's bonding, as it was the first and only bond between human and stinger.

The cutters, or ants as they were called in the Overland, had always hated the humans, as well as all the other warmbloods in the Underland. They also had millions of soldiers, which dwarfed the Regalia population of about 1,500, but they also had to fight the gnawers, fliers, nibblers, diggers, and all their allies, so the war was pretty even.

Right now, as Crynn walked with Acrab to the cave that had been given to them as a home, Perdita was probably coordinating attacks against the cutters.

The cave was a little far from the city, but not very. It had beautiful blue crystals speckled around on the walls, slightly illuminating the area. There were also many supplies and food in the cavern that Crynn had heard were secretly stored there when Gregor and Luxa had gone off on quests. Apparently, the cave was very special to Gregor. Crynn didn't know exactly why, but it made him and Acrab feel somewhat bad about living in it. They were very grateful for a home, though.

Crynn and Acrab fished from a stream that ran near the cave for their food, since they didn't want to take any of the food in the cave unless they desperately needed it. Crynn made a contraption to help him fish, a kind of lever-based thing made of fish bone that launched a hooked bone tied to some very strong spinner silk. The other end of the silk was attached to the contraption. He would launch the hook at a fish in the water, and pull it out with the line of silk. He could catch very large fish with it, as the silk was strong enough to support even his own weight.

Crynn had been making little inventions like the hook fisher, as he called it, since he was six years old. His parents had thought it was odd, them both being soldiers and not having the time to engage in things like that, but they never were bothered by it. They were proud of him for who he was. But here, nobody would approve of his talent. The only one that knew about it was Acrab. Crynn knew he would never tell anybody about it.

The two arrived at the cave, and went to the corner where they slept. They had hammocks made of spinner silk, and there was a small tunnel nearby that went right over an underground stream where Acrab had asked a digger to make a hole above. They used this as the bathroom.

Acrab climbed up into his hammock. "I am quite tired from the training today," He told Crynn. "I think I will go ahead and sleep now. Rest you with me?"

"I am not very tired at the moment, actually. I think I will go catch a fish or two," Crynn replied.

Acrab curled himself up. "Then be careful," he told Crynn.

Crynn got his hook fisher and began walking to the fishing stream. As he went, he thought about what it would have been like to be the Warrior, as Gregor had been before he smashed the sword of Bartholomew of Sandwich on his knee, thus killing the Warrior and completing the Prophecy of Time. Most everyone treated him with respect, and almost nobody respected Crynn.

He and Acrab were basically outcasts, only noticed because Acrab was usually the only stinger wherever they were. Of course, that was Acrab being the one noticed, not Crynn. Crynn was "The One Bonded to the Stinger". That was all he was. Not that being bonded to Acrab was a bad thing. Crynn had made that choice himself to save Acrab. The stinger was his best friend.

Crynn finally arrived at the stream, and he pulled the hook fisher, which was hanging off his shoulder from a leather strap, out to catch a large fish he immediately saw in the water. He held it up, aligning it with his eye to aim, and pulled the lever on the bottom. The hook shot across the water, embedding itself into the side of the fish. Crynn pulled the three foot long fish out of the water, and as he was reaching for his knife to kill and prepare it, he heard a voice directly above him.

"Woah, is that a grappling hook?!" Crynn jumped so high that the hook fisher, along with the fish, flew into the water and was carried off by the currents.

"Oh crap! Sorry!" He heard behind him. He spun around to find Rho, with Atlas, standing right behind him.

"Here, c'mon dude. We'll go get it," she told him. "This is Atlas, my bond. Hop on." Before he could say anything, she grabbed his hand and pulled him onto Atlas' back, behind her. The bat took off over the water, gliding slowly down the stream. "I'm Rho, by the way. I'm an Overlander." She told Crynn.

"I can tell. By your skin." He said back. "By my skin?" She turned and looked at him, a reproachful look in her eyes. "What're you looking at my skin for?"

"Um, n-no, I did not... I mean..." Crynn stammered, but Rho doubled over, laughing. "I'm just messing! You're fun." She looked back at him, wiping tears away. "I can tell by _your _skin that you're pretty embarrassed. Your whole face is bright red, Underlander!"

This just made him blush even more, but she turned around before she could see it. He tried to get himself together.

"Well, my name is Crynn," he said. "I saw you and Atlas training today. You were both very impressive."

"Well thanks, Crynn. Atlas does all the work, though," she replied.

"Not true," Crynn heard Atlas purr from in front of them.

"So what was that thing you dropped in the water? It looked really cool," Rho said to Crynn, ignoring Atlas.

"Cool? What does that mean?" Crynn asked. He was worried that the Overland term might mean that it looked bad, or unethical.

"Well, I guess it means neat, or good, or something like that. But I'm not gonna know if it is or not unless you tell me what it is."

So Crynn dove into a long explanation of what his invention was and how it worked. The best part was that Rho seemed to listen to every word he said.

"So it's like a crossbow and grappling hook combined, but used for fishing," she exclaimed. "And judging by the look on your face," she said, turning around, "you have no idea what either of those things are. Didn't expect you to. A crossbow is a weapon that launches an arrow wherever you point it, and a grappling hook is a device that fires a hook on a wire to hook on to a ledge to swing across a gap or something," she explained. "That's really cool that you combined those two things without even knowing about them."

Crynn was very surprised. He wasn't expecting her to be this interested in anything involving him.

"Well, we've been searching for a while. I don't know if we're gonna find it," Rho told Crynn after a little bit. "Sorry I made you drop it."

"It's fine," Crynn told her. "I can probably make another one, but until then Acrab can catch all the fish for us."

"Who's Acrab?" She asked him. Right. Crynn had not told her about his bond yet. "He is my bond. A stinger. We live together in the cave that I came out of. We should probably get back anyway, so you and Atlas can meet him if you want."

"Sure," she said. We're not doing anything else right now."

It took a while for them to get back to the tunnel entrance. They landed so Atlas could rest for a little bit, then they took off, flying down through the tunnel. They landed at the mouth of the cave, and Crynn led the way in.

"Hey Acrab, I brought some—"

The scene before them cut him short. The supplies stored around the cave were tossed around, and their hammocks were torn down.

Acrab was nowhere to be found, and the ground was littered with the bodies of dead cutters.


	3. Chapter 3

"Acrab?!" Crynn yelled. "Acrab! No! Where is he?!"

"Hey. Hey! Calm down," Rho grabbed him. "We'll find him. He's a giant armored scorpion! Wherever he is, he can't have gotten far." She looked around. "We need to look for clues."

Crynn took some deep breaths. "Yes. You are right." He glanced around the room, and his eyes landed on something dark brown.

"His muzzle! Good. He was able to get it off. He would be nearly helpless without his stinger."

Atlas and Rho flew up into the air to survey the area. "Down there!" Crynn heard Atlas call.

Crynn sprinted to where the flyer was landing, around the boxes of supplies. He turned the corner and tripped right over a cutter.

"Ah!" Crynn yelled, before the insect was right on top of him. He barely had time to grab the mandibles of the cutter right before they sliced into his throat. Right then, Rho swooped in and stabbed it right through the back of the head with her sword.

Crynn shoved the lifeless body off of him. "Thanks," he said to Rho as he stood back up.

"Look. See what the cutter was after." Atlas said to them.

They both turned to look. A small bright blue spinner crouched, trembling, in the corner, partly concealed by some boxes.

"Hey. Hey there," Rho said slowly to it. "Don't worry. We won't hurt you."

"Y-yes," the spinner said back. "I know. I am only afraid there are more."

"More?" Crynn looked around the room. I do not think there are any more now. Do you know what happened to the stinger that was here?"

"The stinger defended his territory well, but there were simply too many," the spinner explained. "They chased him down that tunnel." The spinner looked over at the tunnel leading to their bathroom stream.

"Then they must have come in through the main entrance," Crynn determined. "The one leading to Regalia! How did they get so close?!" The Regalians had guards on flyers patrolling all the nearby tunnels. There was no way they could have gotten this close without alerting somebody.

"Yes. They chased me through that tunnel to this place. I am sorry your stinger friend payed for my recklessness."

"Do not blame yourself. You were running for your life! Only I want to know how they got this close to Regalia. We must tell Queen Luxa," Crynn exclaimed.

"Let us fly now," Atlas said. "The spinner must come with us. She will prove our story." So the spinner was female.

"So will this," Rho said. She walked over to one of the cutters' bodies, pulled out her sword, and cut off one of its legs. "Let's go."

She hopped onto Atlas, and Crynn picked up the spinner and put her on his back.

"So, what is your name?" He asked her.

"My name is Lox," she replied. She said nothing else.

It was much quicker traveling on a flyer to Regalia from the cave than it was traveling on foot. They flew straight to the High Hall, and ran through the halls, looking for someone of authority. Crynn had only been in the palace once, when he had bonded with Acrab. He wanted to take his time and look around, but he knew that the cutters were a more pressing matter.

They quickly found a guard, who directed them to a closed-off meeting room where they found the Queen in deep discussion with Perdita, the leader of the army, and her gnawer bond, Ripred, with her flyer bond behind her. Crynn recognized the gnawer from the X-shaped scar across his muzzle between his eyes. Their sudden arrival seemed to startle the four of them.

Rho tossed the cutter leg on the table they stood next to. "There's cutters near Regalia. We just killed one, and there are tons of cutter bodies in Crynn's cave. His bond is missing, as well. We saved this spinner from them too."

They stared at her for a second, then Luxa whipped around. "Perdita, with me. It's Ares' cave. Ripred, find Gregor and let him know."

"On it," the gnawer said, and took off out the door.

Luxa then turned back to Crynn and the others. "You better come back with us. We need you to explain on the way."

They left the room, and ran back to High Hall. The Queen leapt into the air, and was swept up by her flyer. Rho, Crynn, and Lox got on Atlas, and Perdita got her flyer. As they flew out of the palace and across the city, other flyers with their bonds joined them.

Luxa knew exactly where the cave was, and they arrived at the entrance in minutes. Something was wrong, however.

"Where are all the cutters' bodies?" Crynn said.

They were gone. Not a single trace of them could be found, except for the stored supplies, which were still thrown around the place.

"What the heck?! They're all gone!" Rho exclaimed, hopping off of Atlas' back. She turned around to look at Crynn and Atlas, who were both as dumbfounded as she. Lox was making a strange clicking sound.

"So, what was this plan of yours?" Luxa said, turning around to glare at them. "An attempt to ambush Aurora and I? Or simply just to waste my time?"

Rho stared right back at her. "Are you kidding me?! This wasn't some scheme to get you here! There were cutters here! How do you think we got that leg?!"

"Simple," Luxa replied. "There are cutters all over the Underland. You are a formidable fighter, or so I've heard from Mareth. You found a cutter, killed it, and took its leg."

"That is _not_ true!" Atlas spat at Luxa.

"Yeah! They attacked my bond, Acrab!" Crynn added.

"You are lying," Luxa said simply. "Guards! Bond and gag them." One of the guards was already prepared. He tackled Atlas from behind, and pinned his wings to his sides.

"Hey! Get off of him!" Rho yelled, and pulled out her sword.

"Woah, woah!" Crynn yelled. "This is all just a misunderstanding! Please, you have to believe us!" But they didn't stop. They were being backed into a corner by four guards and Perdita, and the fifth guard was tying Atlas up. "Just come willingly, and nobody will be hurt," Perdita warned.

Crynn pulled his knife out. Lox raised herself up to her full height of two feet and braced herself. The guards kept backing them up. Crynn's back touched the wall, and that's when the guards rushed in. Perdita struck at Rho, who was not completely ready for the attack. Her sword flew out of her hand when she deflected Perdita's swing, and Perdita punched her in the face, knocking her to the floor.

"No!" Crynn blurted. He swung his knife out, causing two of the guards to back up, and grazed the arm of another. But four trained guards against one kid still in training proved to be too much. The fourth guard punched Crynn in the stomach, and another knocked his knife out of his hand. His legs were kicked out from under him, and he hit the ground hard.

He had just enough time to see Lox get tackled before something hit him hard in the head and it all went dark.


End file.
